It is well known that operating a telescope in darkness is difficult and time consuming. The present invention is beneficial to reduce the difficulty and time spent removing and replacing eyepieces by providing a more convenient, instantaneous light source and a faster, improved method of viewing celestial objects.
Other telescope lighting fixtures and flashlights are known in the hobby for providing lighting effects. However, in prior telescope flashlight inventions the telescope operator must first search through darkness to find the telescope light and then throw a switch for illumination. Also, the time wasted searching for, and turning on and turning off these prior telescope lights will allow a celestial object to move out of the field of view. Due to this time consuming process a celestial object will have to be moved back into the field of view--wasting even more time.
If a common hand held flashlight is used to operate a telescope, then it will become difficult to remove and replace an eyepiece with this flashlight in hand.
In contrast to the aforementioned lighting inventions, the present invention does not have be searched for in darkness, does not waste valuable viewing time, and automatically illuminates and turns off as needed while the telescope is being operated.
Other prior telescope flashlights are designed to be place on the tripod tray which is meant for limited, optical eyepiece storage. In contrast, the present invention is secured to one tripod leg and doesn't waste a valuable eyepiece storage space on the tripod tray.